ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Aziz Abu Sarah - Entrepreneur + educator
Aziz Abu Sarah helps people break down cultural and historical barriers through tourism.

Why you should listen

When Aziz Abu Sarah was a boy, his older brother was arrested on charges of throwing stones. He was taken to prison and beaten — and died of his injuries. Sarah grew up angry, bitter and wanting revenge. But when later in life he met, for the first time, Jews who were not soldiers, Sarah had an epiphany: Not only did they share his love of small things, namely country music, but coming face to face with the “enemy” compelled him to find ways to overcome hatred, anger and fear.

Sarah founded MEJDI Tours to send tourists to Jerusalem with two guides, one Jewish and one Palestinian, each offering a different history and narrative of the city. Sarah tells success stories of tourists from the US visiting a Palestinian refugee camp and listening to joint Arab and Jewish bands play music, and of a Muslim family from the UK sharing Sabbath dinner with a Jewish family and realizing that 100 years ago, their people came from the same town in Northern Africa. MEJDI is expanding its service to Iran, Turkey, Ireland and other regions suffering from cultural conflict. If more of the world’s 1 billion tourists were to engage with real people living real lives, argues Sarah, it would be a powerful force for shattering sterotypes and promoting understanding, friendship and peace.

More profile about the speaker
Aziz Abu Sarah | Speaker | TED.com
TED2014

Aziz Abu Sarah: For more tolerance, we need more ... tourism?

Aziz Abu Sarah: Para maior tolerância, precisamos de mais...turismo?

Filmed:
1,494,756 views

Aziz Abu Sarah é um palestino com uma abordagem incomum para a manutenção da paz: seja um turista. O bolsista TED mostra como interações simples entre pessoas de culturas diferentes pode corroer décadas de ódio. Ele começa com palestinos visitando israelenses e vai além...
- Entrepreneur + educator
Aziz Abu Sarah helps people break down cultural and historical barriers through tourism. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I'm a tourism entrepreneur
and a peacebuilder,
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Eu sou um empresário do turismo
e membro dos Peacebuilders,
00:15
but this is not how I started.
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mas não foi sempre assim.
00:18
When I was seven years old,
I remember watching television
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Quando eu tinha sete anos,
eu lembro de assistir televisão,
00:21
and seeing people throwing rocks,
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ver pessoas jogando pedras
00:24
and thinking, this must be
a fun thing to do.
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e achar que devia ser
algo divertido de se fazer.
00:27
So I got out to the street
and threw rocks,
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Então eu saí na rua
e comecei a atirar pedras,
00:30
not realizing I was supposed
to throw rocks at Israeli cars.
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sem saber que eu deveria mirar
em carros de israelitas.
00:34
Instead, I ended up stoning
my neighbors' cars. (Laughter)
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Resultado: eu apedrejei
os carros dos vizinhos. (Risos)
00:38
They were not enthusiastic
about my patriotism.
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Eles não ficaram muito felizes
com o meu patriotismo.
00:42
This is my picture with my brother.
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Essa é uma foto com meu irmão.
00:44
This is me, the little one,
and I know what you're thinking:
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Esse sou eu, o menor,
e eu sei o que vocês estão pensando:
00:47
"You used to look cute,
what the heck happened to you?"
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"Você era tão bonitinho,
o que raios aconteceu com você?"
00:50
But my brother, who is older than me,
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Mas o meu irmão, mais velho do que eu,
00:52
was arrested when he was 18,
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foi preso aos 18 anos,
acusado de jogar pedras.
00:55
taken to prison on charges
of throwing stones.
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00:57
He was beaten up when he refused
to confess that he threw stones,
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Como ele se recusou a confessar
que atirou pedras, ele foi espancado,
01:01
and as a result, had internal injuries
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o que causou ferimentos internos
01:04
that caused his death soon after
he was released from prison.
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que levaram à sua morte
logo depois de ter sido solto.
01:08
I was angry, I was bitter,
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Eu estava furioso e ressentido,
01:12
and all I wanted was revenge.
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tudo que eu queria era vingança.
01:16
But that changed when I was 18.
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Mas isso mudou na época
dos meus 18 anos.
01:18
I decided that I needed
Hebrew to get a job,
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Eu decidi que precisava aprender hebraico
para arrumar emprego,
01:22
and going to study Hebrew
in that classroom
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e indo estudar, naquela sala de aula,
01:24
was the first time I ever met Jews
who were not soldiers.
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foi a primeira vez que conheci judeus
que não eram soldados.
01:30
And we connected over really small things,
like the fact that I love country music,
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E eu me conectei com eles através
de coisas pequenas, como música country,
01:34
which is really strange
for Palestinians.
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que é um gosto estranho para um palestino.
01:38
But it was then that I realized also
that we have a wall of anger,
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E também foi ali que eu percebi
que há um muro de raiva,
01:43
of hatred and of ignorance
that separates us.
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de ódio e de ignorância que nos separa.
01:48
I decided that it doesn't matter
what happens to me.
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Eu decidi que não importa
o que acontece comigo.
01:53
What really matters is how I deal with it.
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O que importa é como eu lido com isso.
01:56
And therefore, I decided
to dedicate my life
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Portanto, eu decidi dedicar minha vida
01:59
to bringing down the walls
that separate people.
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a derrubar os muros
que separam as pessoas.
02:03
I do so through many ways.
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Eu faço isso de muitos jeitos.
02:05
Tourism is one of them,
but also media and education,
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O turismo é um deles,
mas também há a mídia e a educação.
02:08
and you might be wondering,
really, can tourism change things?
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E vocês podem estar pensando:
"Sério? O turismo pode mudar as coisas?
02:12
Can it bring down walls? Yes.
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Ele pode derrubar muros?" Sim.
02:14
Tourism is the best sustainable way
to bring down those walls
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O turismo é o melhor jeito sustentável
de derrubar esses muros
02:19
and to create a sustainable way
of connecting with each other
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e criar um jeito sustentável
de nos relacionarmos,
02:23
and creating friendships.
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e fazer amizades.
02:26
In 2009, I cofounded Mejdi Tours,
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Em 2009, eu fundei a Medji Tours,
02:29
a social enterprise that
aims to connect people,
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uma empresa social
dedicada a aproximar pessoas,
02:33
with two Jewish friends, by the way,
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junto com dois amigos judeus, aliás,
02:35
and what we'll do, the model we did,
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e de acordo com o nosso modelo,
02:38
for example, in Jerusalem,
we would have two tour guides,
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por exemplo, em Jerusalém,
haveria dois guias turísticos,
02:41
one Israeli and one Palestinian,
guiding the trips together,
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um israelita e um palestino,
conduzindo a excursão juntos,
02:44
telling history and narrative
and archaeology and conflict
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falando de história, narrativa,
arqueologia e conflitos
02:48
from totally different perspectives.
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a partir de perspectivas
totalmente diferentes.
02:51
I remember running a trip together
with a friend named Kobi --
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Eu me lembro de conduzir uma excursão
com um amigo chamado Kobi;
02:54
Jewish congregation from Chicago,
the trip was in Jerusalem --
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uma congregação judia de Chicago
estava visitando Jerusalém.
02:57
and we took them to a refugee camp,
a Palestinian refugee camp,
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Nós os levamos para um campo
de refugiados palestinos
03:00
and there we had this amazing food.
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e comemos um prato maravilhoso.
03:02
By the way, this is my mother. She's cool.
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Aliás, essa é a minha mãe. Ela é legal.
03:05
And that's the Palestinian
food called maqluba.
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E esse é o maqluba, um prato palestino.
03:08
It means "upside-down."
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Quer dizer "de cabeça para baixo".
03:09
You cook it with rice and chicken,
and you flip it upside-down.
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Você cozinha frango e arroz
e vira ele de cabeça para baixo.
03:12
It's the best meal ever.
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É uma maravilha.
03:14
And we'll eat together.
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Nós comemos juntos,
03:15
Then we had a joint band,
Israeli and Palestinian musicians,
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depois veio uma banda mista
de músicos israelenses e palestinos
03:18
and we did some belly-dancing.
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e dançamos a dança do ventre.
03:20
If you don't know any,
I'll teach you later.
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Se vocês não sabem como se dança,
depois eu ensino.
03:23
But when we left, both sides,
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Quando fomos embora, os dois lados
03:26
they were crying because
they did not want to leave.
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estavam chorando porque não queriam ir.
03:29
Three years later, those
relationships still exist.
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Três anos depois,
esses relacionamentos ainda existem.
03:33
Imagine with me
if the one billion people
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Imaginem comigo,
se o um bilhão de pessoas
03:35
who travel internationally
every year travel like this,
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que viajam para o exterior
todos os anos fizessem isso,
03:39
not being taken in the bus
from one side to another,
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ao invés de ir de ônibus
de um lado para outro,
03:42
from one hotel to another,
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de um hotel para outro,
03:45
taking pictures from the windows
of their buses of people and cultures,
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tirando fotos de pessoas e suas culturas
das janelas dos ônibus,
03:48
but actually connecting with people.
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se ao invés disso,
eles tivessem contato com as pessoas...
03:52
You know, I remember having
a Muslim group from the U.K.
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Sabem, eu lembro da vez que levei
um grupo de muçulmanos ingleses
03:56
going to the house
of an Orthodox Jewish family,
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para a casa de uma família judia ortodoxa
03:58
and having their first Friday night
dinners, that Sabbath dinner,
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para celebrar o jantar da sexta-feira,
o jantar do Sabá,
04:03
and eating together hamin,
which is a Jewish food, a stew,
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e eles comeram hamin juntos,
um guisado típico judeu,
04:06
just having the connection
of realizing, after a while,
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graças a esse contato,
puderam descobrir,
depois de um tempo,
04:09
that a hundred years ago,
their families came out
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que, cem anos atrás,
suas famílias tinham vindo
04:12
of the same place in Northern Africa.
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do mesmo lugar do norte da África.
Isso não é uma foto de perfil
para o seu Facebook.
04:15
This is not a photo profile
for your Facebook.
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04:18
This is not disaster tourism.
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Isso não é turismo de tragédias.
04:20
This is the future of travel,
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Isso é o futuro das viagens
04:23
and I invite you to join me to do that,
to change your travel.
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e eu convido vocês a se juntarem a mim,
para mudar suas viagens.
04:26
We're doing it all over the world now,
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Nós estamos agindo no mundo todo,
04:28
from Ireland to Iran to Turkey,
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desde a Irlanda até o Irã e a Turquia,
04:30
and we see ourselves going
everywhere to change the world.
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e queremos chegar em todo lugar
para poder mudar o mundo.
Muito obrigado.
04:33
Thank you.
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(Aplausos)
04:34
(Applause)
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Translated by Thierry Carvalho
Reviewed by Ruy Lopes Pereira

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Aziz Abu Sarah - Entrepreneur + educator
Aziz Abu Sarah helps people break down cultural and historical barriers through tourism.

Why you should listen

When Aziz Abu Sarah was a boy, his older brother was arrested on charges of throwing stones. He was taken to prison and beaten — and died of his injuries. Sarah grew up angry, bitter and wanting revenge. But when later in life he met, for the first time, Jews who were not soldiers, Sarah had an epiphany: Not only did they share his love of small things, namely country music, but coming face to face with the “enemy” compelled him to find ways to overcome hatred, anger and fear.

Sarah founded MEJDI Tours to send tourists to Jerusalem with two guides, one Jewish and one Palestinian, each offering a different history and narrative of the city. Sarah tells success stories of tourists from the US visiting a Palestinian refugee camp and listening to joint Arab and Jewish bands play music, and of a Muslim family from the UK sharing Sabbath dinner with a Jewish family and realizing that 100 years ago, their people came from the same town in Northern Africa. MEJDI is expanding its service to Iran, Turkey, Ireland and other regions suffering from cultural conflict. If more of the world’s 1 billion tourists were to engage with real people living real lives, argues Sarah, it would be a powerful force for shattering sterotypes and promoting understanding, friendship and peace.

More profile about the speaker
Aziz Abu Sarah | Speaker | TED.com